Today I wanted to talk about the mating ritual that male and female BSF adult flies participate in. The female will sit on the underside of a leaf, while the male will fly over and land on top of the same leaf. The males drum their antenna on the leaf, and eventually walk over to the side of the leaf, and peak over (presumably to see if there are any predators or dangers on the underside). Then the male and female fly up together, and (if they do mate), mate midair in bright sunshine.
One reason females have a green abdomen may be for camouflauge when they sit on the underside of the leaf. Also, yesterday, when I took the two adults (+ the one hitchhiker) for samples, I noticed that they became much more active when under a light. BSF need sunlight in order to mate.
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Lisa it's great to see someone working with BSF in Canada. Hope to see more updates soon.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this info. I'm looking into BSF as fish feed for aquaponics.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
-BullwinkleII
Hi Lisa,
ReplyDeleteI presume that your study with BSF has finished. I was wondering what you did with the biopod? I live out in White Rock, and might in interested in purchasing it if the biopod is not longer being used. Also, where did you order the grubs from?
Thanks!